Little Girl Lost
by Sarazz Prime
Summary: With Megan Donner leaving the crime lab indefinitely, Horatio decides it's time to recruit fresh blood to the team once the lab is hit with a massive amount of case overload. With a new CSI recruited from out of state, Speed is set in charge over them.
1. Prologue

**Summary:** With Detective Megan Donner leaving the crime lab indefinitely, Horatio decides it's time to recruit fresh blood to the team once the lab is hit with a massive amount of case overload. A new CSI is found by accident, and immediately Horatio places Speed in charge of training their new member to ease the work load on everyone. Everyone is faced with new challenges, fresh frustration, and a new cynical personality that adds a bit of dry humor to a crime lab in need of a change of pace.

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**Disclaimer:** I claim no ownership over the rights of the CSI franchise, story lines, and or characters. Unknown and unrelated characters mentioned and or used in this story are a work of pure imagination and the over thinking of a TV show fan. Any related likeness of my characters to that of any used in other fan-stories is purely coincidental and not intentional. 

**Rating:** T

**Warnings:** Strong language, violence, graphic scenes of death, adult situations, and alcohol/gambling references.

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**Little Girl Lost**

**Prologue**

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"_If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die."_ - _**Christine**_**, N****arration; Part 1 - Chapter 5 by Stephen King**

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The simple sound of a ball point pen scratching across the smooth surface of a bright yellow legal pad was the only sound in the small office, lost to the hearing of the man seated behind his personal desk as it was just another background noise that made up the soundtrack of everyday life. However, it was something akin to an annoying buzz to the young woman sitting before the desk in a tan leather chair, eyes looking about the small office at a rather leisurely pace, taking in the small details, picking out the unique oddities that gave it all a personal touch in a rather uniform building. The movement of her eyes were the only part of her that even shifted since taking her seat nearly twenty minutes ago, or at least so she summarized while exhaling quietly through her nose now as she adjusted the way in which she folded her hands in her lap. 

"I am sorry, Ms. Parker. Paperwork on a transfer is usually the one thing that could be described as the more agonizing experience of the workplace." He murmured while glancing up at her momentarily, powder blue meeting with dark liquid navy for a few seconds, but long enough to take note to the fact that she was paying close attention to him as he spoke. A simple nod from her was enough to allow a rather well known smile slip across his features for a moment before he returned his gaze down to the legal pad his pen continued to scratch across. "Did you have any trouble moving into your new place?" He asked, maintaining a level of somewhat familiarity with the young woman, keeping conversation light and friendly.

"No actually, I didn't. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to obtain a new apartment so quickly in Miami." She replied, a smirk pulling at the corner of her mouth the reminder of the parting words her old co-workers, friends, and family had left with her as she moved. _Finding a place in Miami, close to where you'll be working, will be hell. Especially one that will fit you changing budget. _That and the ever popular – _Good luck...you're gonna need it._ "The commute between there and here will take some time to get used to, but it'll be a nice change from the old routine I used to have back home."

He nodded knowingly, his gaze flickering up to her for a moment. "Good. Good." He murmured, satisfied with her response. "I'm sure it will become second nature to you in time." He also offered an assurance, knowing full well how long it took him to adjust to Miami's faster lifestyle than most of the big cities in the US. Scrawling his signature at the bottom of the page, he finally set his pen down and leaned forward in his chair, arms coming to fold atop his desk. "Ms. Parker, I would first like to say that I am very grateful you accepted my invitation to join the Miami-Dade Crime Lab. Extra hands are needed right now, and with your previous training on and off the field will be of great help to us." His tone of voice showed a great deal of sincerity that lacked in a lot of people nowadays. "Effective immediately you will be joining my day shift. At the moment, I will be assigning you to running evidence within the lab to the different departments, picking up evidence from the coroner's office,"

"Basically I'm the_ gofor_e." She interjected, knowing that he was refraining from out right saying that she was an errand runner, but yet held a bit of a smirk to the corners of her mouth. Even though it seemed a bit of a down-grade to be named the lab _gofore_, she still retained some sort of mild sense of humor about it. As the look on the man's face started to change a bit, as if he were looking to possibly apologize or explain something, she cut him off. "Lieutenant Caine, I'm not offended, if that's what you're worried about. You told me that you needed help on and off the field at the moment, that's why I took you up on the offer. I didn't move here expecting to hit the field right away."

The red haired lieutenant of the Miami-Dade crime lab nodded, a bit of a smile pulling at his mouth. "I appreciate that Ms. Parker." He replied before standing up from his place behind the desk in his office. "Now, if you will follow me, I can show you around the crime lab, introduce you to the people you will be working with, and then we can get you started."

Standing up as well, she followed the lieutenant out of his office and stepped out into the main hall that would lead them to the first floor elevators. The two exchanged small talk, the lieutenant asking about the job she had worked prior to coming into Miami-Dade, what position she held within the ranks and what she was considered specialized in, and a bit of a family background. By the time the elevators opened up to the second floor of the crime lab, the red haired lieutenant had learned a few of the basics when it came to understanding the personality of a member to his team. Following the lead of Lt. Caine, she was shown where **Trace** was located, **DNA**, **Audio/Visual (A/V)**,**Questioned Documents (QD)**, and was introduced to the technicians she would be interacting with on a daily basis now.

"Giving a tour Horatio?" A female voice pipped up from behind the lieutenant as he and Ms. Parker stood out in the hall talking briefly over something that had apparently come up in question.

Looking back over his shoulder, Lt. Horatio Caine nodded with a smile towards the tall attractive black woman coming his way. "Alexx, perfect timing. I would like to introduce you to the newest addition to the day shift. Reese Parker, this is Dr. Alexx Woods, our prime medical examiner. Alexx, Detective Reese Parker formerly of the San Diego Crime Lab." He introduced the two ladies to one another while stepping out of the way a bit so as to not interfere with their greeting.

Alexx stepped forward with a warm smile on her face and hand extended out to the new employee of the crime lab, taking note of how young she seemed to look but identifying the strong personality in her eyes that betrayed an actual age estimate. Reese was tall, which impressed Alexx seeing as how the young woman was wearing a pair of dress shoes similar to her own. If she had to guess, Reese had to stand at least around the 5'10" mark. Dressed in a pair of pin stripped slacks and a pale powder blue quarter sleeved shirt sporting a stark white collar and pleated cuffs, she looked incredibly professional and a bit on the cute side with a short hairdo that fit nicely with deep reddish auburn color of her hair.

"Nice to meet you Reese. I work with Horatio and the rest of day shift as head medical examiner." She greeted while shaking hands with her. "Hope you're not too squeamish."

Reese chuckled behind her lips briefly. "Depends on what you define as squeamish." She grinned. "I've seen some interesting things that would make Wes Cravens' skin crawl."

"Oh Horatio, I like her." Alexx flashed a smile in response to the younger woman's response, to which even Horatio chuckled. "Well Reese, you'll have to excuse me. I got your two from the art gallery up for autopsy." Alexx turned her attention to Horatio who nodded to her. "It was nice meeting you hun. I'll see you later." She grinned at the redheaded woman before turning to leave.

"Alexx." Horatio nodded at her with his usual smile as the medical examiner took her leave. He glanced over at Reese with a bit of an inquisitive look. "Things that would make Wes Cravens' skin crawl, eh?"

Reese shrugged, eyes grinning more than her mouth. "Outside that glossy veneer every one wants to put on a big place like San Diego, it's a war zone. Gang shoot outs, execution on the streets for drug deals gone wrong, prostitution rings; you know, all that wonderful stuff that makes sure we have a job to do." There was a small glimmer of sadness in her tone of voice. Reese had seen a lot and some of that stuff would in fact probably make the skin crawl right off the back of a dire hard horror film fanatic.

"I understand completely Ms. Parker." Horatio gave her a small smile while gesturing with a tilt of his head for her follow. "Why don't go ahead and head on over to staff lounge so I can introduce you to the rest of the team. Okay?"

A short nod from Reese in response and the two CSI's head off down the hall. On the way to the staff lounge they exchanged a brief conversation on what it was exactly that Horatio needed her to do for the time being inside the lab, while also making mention to the fact there was good possibility that she would more than likely end up on the field as well when necessary. Reese made mental notes of the various area they passed, using them as a self-guided map that she would eventually need to get around the lab without getting horribly lost and turned around.

As luck would have it, the other three CSI's of the day shift had collected themselves inside the staff lounge before heading out on what cases they were working on. Horatio stepped in and immediately was greeted by one of two men inside the lounge, his gaze fell quickly upon the young woman tailing his boss to which he pulled an eyebrow up in question.

Reaching a hand back to her, Horatio gently guided her forward to stand at his side versus hiding out behind him. "I'd like you to meet our newest recruit; Detective Reese Parker. I stole her from the San Diego Crime Lab." Horatio held a faint smirk upon his mouth as he spoke.

"Well hey there." The blonde woman, and the only other female CSI on the day shift, greeted Reese with a bright smile as she strode forward to shake hands with her. The southern accent in her speech made her appear even more friendly. "I'm Calleigh Duquesne, it's nice to meet you Reese."

Shaking hands with her, Reese couldn't help but smile right back as the one on Calleigh's face was just infectious. "Likewise." She returned.

"So H stole you from San Diego, uh?" The same guy who had greeted Horatio first turned a rather charming smile on Reese, the look of question gone as it was replaced by one more of intrigue as he stepped forward to introduce himself to her. "Eric Delko." He offered her his hand as Calleigh had.

The first thing Reese noticed about Eric Delko was that he was of course a descendant of some sort of Latino heritage, but also that he was incredibly attractive, the smile only making that aspect of his appearance even more apparent. She grinned back while shaking hands with him as well. "I'd say it was more along the lines of borrowing with no intention of giving me back." Reese lifted a brow as she took note of the way Eric seemed to be looking her over in a subtle way.

"Sounds like something you'd do H." The other man in the room took a sip from the coffee he poured himself from the small pot on the back counter. "How did the SD Crime Lab take it?" His manner of speech was rather nonchalant and near monotone as he approached, a look on his face that showed he was a bit curious as to how a CSI from California happened to be snatched over to Florida in the first place.

"Ms. Parker this is Tim Speedle." Horatio introduced her to the last member of the day shift while giving his friend and colleague a bit of a look that Reese couldn't quite place at the moment. "They were a bit reluctant to let her go from what I hear." He glanced over at the redheaded woman beside him with a small amount of mirth in his eyes before returning his attention on Tim. "As would any crime lab."

Tim nodded while extending a hand out to Reese, a faint smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Welcome to Miami-Dade."

Reese shook hands with him, but couldn't help but feel as though he were actually _judging _her right there on the spot. In her own observation of him, Reese agreed with herself to the fact that while he wasn't as suave looking as Eric, he did have an overall attractive look that was rounded off to a more rougher appearance and deadpan sort of attitude.

Once introductions had been made, Horatio dove into his explanation concerning Reese's transfer to Miami-Dade. "I asked Ms. Parker to join the day shift about a month ago. Right now we need the extra set of hands to run things around the lab to help us with the case overload, so I'm assigning her to the lab for the time being. Speed," Horatio again turned his attention to Tim Speedle, calling him by the nickname that he was referred by mainly than his first name, and gained a lifted look back in response. "I'm placing Ms. Parker under your supervision for a while, show her how things work here in the lab until she gets her bearings."

"Yeah, sure, no problem." Tim glanced over at the redhead who didn't seem to show any indifference to her new role in the Miami-Dade crime lab. He hadn't really expected that. In fact, he figured there would at least be a bit of unease at being set in the lab versus out on the field as he assumed that may have been her position back in San Diego. He was a little impressed by her overall placid acceptance.

"Alright then; Calliegh, Eric, where are we on the double homicide at the art gallery?" Horatio turned his attention to the other two CSI's now, a look of serious concentration on his face as he spoke.

"We've got evidence running in DNA and Trace right now, once we get the results back we can start narrowing down our suspect list and hopefully bring someone in for questioning." Calleigh replied while exhaling a small sigh at the end. "Until then we're stuck."

Horatio nodded. "Okay, heres what I want you to do. Go back to the art gallery and question the manager again, go over the same questions from yesterday and see if he changes his story in any way."

"Sure thing H." Eric nodded while glancing over at the blonde, who grinned a gestured towards the door with a hand. Before heading out the door with her, Eric gave Reese another grin. "I see ya 'round Parker."

Reese gave the two CSIs a wave as they left, leaving her with Horatio and Tim in the lounge brief before she too was handed down her first of many tasks to come.

"Speed, I'd like you to show Ms. Parker to the Coroner's Office. Alexx has our two DB's up right now." Horatio nodded over at Nora as he spoke. "I want you to run whatever Alexx's finds to wherever they need to go, okay?" The transferred CSI nodded right back in response, to which Horatio then glanced to Tim. "Once you're done at the autopsy, I need you to head over to _the Grove_ to finish up on the B&E at the Smithson residence."

"Yeah." Tim nodded while casting a glance at the new CSI staring right back at him. "Follow me." He nodded at the door while moving towards it and stepping out into the hall.

Horatio kept Reese back for a moment before she actually left. "First day will probably be a little stressful, so don't push yourself into overdrive." He gave her a smile that looked akin to something she normally got from her former supervisor when she started burning the candle at both ends. "Don't worry about not knowing what to do next, everyone's going to be needing you to run things throughout the whole lab."

"I figured." Reese grinned slightly as she spoke. "You weren't kidding when you said you needed the extra set of hands." She tilted her head to the side in gesture towards the buzzing crime lab outside the door.

Horatio's mouth played with a smirk as he pulled his sunglasses from the right pocket of his pants. "Welcome to the Miami-Dade Crime Lab, Ms. Parker."


	2. Chapter 1

**Little Girl Lost**

**Chapter One**

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_A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty_. -_**Rudyard Kipling**_

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The trip over the Coroner's Office was slightly uneasy for both parties, small talk was batted back and forth between Tim Speedle and Reese Parker circulating around the average questions one normally used to probe someone new and find out a few things about them. Neither one really seemed to find solid ground with the other as they jumped from subject to subject rather quickly. In fact, as they walked in through the doors that would lead them down the hall to the exam room, Tim glanced over at the redhead walking alongside him.

"So, what brings you out from California anyways? A transfer all the way here to Florida seems a bit of a stretch." Tim watched her reaction, noting the shrug she gave back before explaining her part in the transfer.

"I've been wanting to get away from the West Coast for a while now. Take a step outside of what I know and find a new change of pace." Reese shrugged while glancing about her surroundings briefly. There wasn't much difference between the Coroner's Office in San Diego and this one here in Miami, but it still felt a bit alien at the moment.

Tim nodded as he understood that a certain degree as he himself hailed from New York. "You definitely picked a rather interesting city for a change of pace." He mused with a raised brow while casting a quick glance from the corner of his eye. "San Diego not wild enough for ya?"

Reese grinned a bit as they approached the doors to the exam room. "Trust me, I don't think there's much difference between California and Florida, unless you want to throw alligators and crocodiles into the mix."

Opening his mouth to say something, Tim closed it promptly and just shook his head before pulling down on the steel handle and yanking the door open. With a inward sweeping gesture of his arm, he looked back at Reese with a lifted look. "After you, rookie."

Rolling her eyes as she walked into the exam room, stepping straight into the theater, Reese found herself almost directly face to face with two dead male bodies set out on the cold stainless steel tables she was all too familiar with. "Some things never change, no matter what city you live in." She mumbled under her breath while staring between the two victims.

"Baby, I think the same thing everyday." The familiar voice of the ME drifted in from seemingly nowhere, catching the attention of both Tim and Reese off to their immediate right. Dr. Alexx Woods stepped up to the two CSI's while pulling on a set of latex gloves. "Looks like Horatio sent you straight to the action." She grinned with amused look on her face.

"I guess it just means I get to showcase just how much of a steel stomach I have right off the bat." Reese shrugged while nabbing a pair of latex gloves from the nearby counter. "So, what's the four one one on these two?" A rather serious look overtook her face as she slipped her hands inside the smooth material of the gloves.

Alexx shot Tim a rather impressed look as she conveyed her personal liking to the new girl on the team. Giving a meager shrug with his brows, Tim yanked on a pair of gloves as well before moving over to join the two women at the exam tables.

"Well, long story short, our two boys here were killed by blunt force trauma. To the back of the head, to the right temple." Alexx turned the heads of each victim, showcasing the rather nasty looking wounds inflicted by a weapon of some kind. The bone of the skull was crushed in with hair, blood, and flesh forming a rather gruesome mixture about the injury. "Both have defensive wounds and bruising on their forearms and hands. At least they put up a fight before going down for the count." Alexx exhaled a sigh, her expression clinging to a sense of remorse at young lives lost to senseless violence.

Just by looking at them it was evident they couldn't be anywhere outside of their early thirties. Reese noted that both men were good-looking, clean cut in appearance with a bit of that metrosexual look that was becoming rather popular. Something you would expect from art dealers or at least sales associates in art galleries.

"What'd you find on them?" Tim glanced up at Alexx with a questioning look on his face.

"Foreign substance under the fingernails on Mark Sidle over here." Alexx moved towards the blonde haired one of the pair, lifting up his right hand to indicate where she had found evidence. "I scraped it and sent it to Trace." Gently setting his hand down, Alexx moved up towards his head and opened his mouth. "There were a few red fibers caught in his teeth, possibly from his attacker. The bruising around the left side of his mouth suggests he took one straight on." Her fingers circled about the dark purple and green splotch of blood trapped beneath the skin.

Reese nodded as she listened to Alexx speak, wondering if maybe she should voice her own opinion on the matter or remain silent since she would only be running evidence between the different areas in the lab. However, Reese opted to at least say something. "Red fibers could have been transferred during the initial blow. If they guy got sucker punched, the arm of his attacker would continue off to the side forward enough for whatever he was wearing to get snagged on the teeth briefly." She had seen a few of these before back in San Diego. Whenever a street brawl broke out between rival gang members or whoever had beef with who at the moment, punches to the face normally left behind more than just bruises and broken teeth. Long sleeved shirts were a choice of wear for a lot in gangs, sporting their colors as a badge of honor, and the cuffs often being what caught in the teeth during an upper cut or hook of any kind.

"It's possible." Tim more or less agreed with the theory, but his usual deadpan personality made it seem as though he wasn't thinking much of her observations, or at least it sounded that way to Reese. After all, she had just met the guy that day about an hour ago, not exactly enough time to get used to his personality. "What about the other guy Alexx, what'd you find on him?"

Alexx gave Tim a brief smirk before gesturing for the two CSI's to follow her to the next table. "Our little Matthew Spencer here had a few extra things on him aside from the same foreign substance under the nails. Unlike Mark, this one has a few smaller bruises in some rather daring areas." Alexx turned the brunette haired man's head to the side and tilted his jaw up a bit. Right underneath his jawline was a rather odd looking bruise.

In fact, on closer inspection with a magnifier at the hands of Tim Speedle, the odd looking bruise was concluded to be two bruises almost overlapping one another. "A hickey?"

"And not just there either honey." Alexx interjected while moving further south to the chest of the deceased and pointed two more bruises on his collarbone that could be considered as identical to the ones on his jawline. Once those were pointed out, Alexx moved even further south, causing an amused look to cut across Reese's face when Alexx lifted the sheet covering the lower extremities. "Our boy was a player."

"Or on his way to having a really nice night before being murdered." Reese murmured while coming around the table to stand beside Alexx. Her inquisitive and curious nature made her a valued member on the San Diego CSI team, but sometimes that nature of hers got confused with other things, which of course at the moment had Tim lifting a brow from his place next to Alexx.

"I swabbed the bruises and sent it off to Valera." Alexx sighed while setting the sheet back down in its place. Twisting slightly to reach behind her, Alexx plucked a small manila envelope with red tape from the medical tray holding a few unused tools of the trade, and handed it directly over to Reese with a grin. "I found what looks like sand in Matthew's ear this morning before you showed up. It's all yours baby."

Taking the envelope from her, Reese nodded with a brief smirk. "I'll get it to Trace."

"Alexx, when the tox reports come in have Reese run them to Calleigh or Eric." Tim caught the gaze of the ME as she was peeling the gloves from her hands.

"Sure thing Timmy." Alexx nodded while glancing over at the spoken of CSI who was currently looking over the blonde victim again, blue eyes narrowing upon the body in a deeply studious manner. _I keep thinking she's a fresh rookie. Baby's got a look that I see all the time around here. I can only begin to imagine how long she's been at this._ "Reese, honey, you seeing something?"

"Not sure." The redhead replied while reaching for a pair of tweezers on the medical tray near at hand. Her eyes were slowly narrowing in on something lost amongst the dead man's blonde hair, or at least hadn't been caught right away. "The ID on the guy, did happen to mention what his hair color is?" Her question almost a near murmur as she leaned in over the body, tweezers pinching a hold on a single strand of the man's hair before plucking it out as carefully as possible to save the follicle.

Tim lifted a brow while taking up the chart hanging off the end of the same table. "Hair color...brown?" He stared down at the blonde and then glanced over at the brunette. "That can't be right."

"No it is." Reese sighed while lifting the hair up to show it off beneath the light. "He just had help with either hair dye or a bleaching kit to change his look." The blonde strand held a dark root about an inch down to the follicle.

Alexx tutted under breath while shaking her head. "Why someone would want to damage their hair like that, I'll never understand." She half grinned while jotting something down on another chart.

Reese chuckled lightly. "Then maybe you shouldn't take a trip out to California. Particularly Orange County." A snicker was held back from being heard as Reese couldn't get the last image of "You want me to tag it?" She glanced over at Tim, who was eying the strand of hair as well.

"Might as well." He shrugged. "Run it over to DNA, let's make sure this guy is who his ID said he is."


	3. Chapter 2

**Little Girl Lost**

**Chapter Two**

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"_The punishment must fit the crime."_ - **Code of Hammurabi**

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Before leaving the new member to the team on her own, Tim Speedle made sure she knew where Trace and DNA was before heading off to _The Grove_ to finish up the investigation into a B&E with Horatio. The two traded cellphone numbers in case Reese needed some help or had a question, and then she was on her own.

First stop was to Trace where she dropped off the substance found on one the victims from the double homicide at an art gallery. Conversing briefly with the lab tech, Aaron Peters, Reese left her number behind for him to call her once the results were in and departed for DNA next. Tracing her steps from memory, watching for familiar faces that she had been introduced to earlier, Reese found her way right back to DNA rather smoothly. Hesitating at the open doorway as she caught sight of the brunette technician working on something already, Reese opted to knock first rather than just step right in.

In response to the knock coming from off to her right, Maxine Valera glanced up from the DNA sample she was finishing up in process and smiled at the redhead she had spoken with about an hour and a half ago when she was brought in by Horatio. "Oh hey, Reese." She greeted her in the usual friendly manner. "What brings you back around to DNA?"

Grinning back at her, Reese held up the small palm-sized evidence envelope she was brought out of autopsy. "One of the victims from the art gallery homicide, we need to make a confirmation that he's who the ID on him says he is." She replied while stepping over the seated tech. "Apparently our blonde guy had some help reaching that certain hair shade." Handing over the envelope to Valera, Reese shrugged in response to the questioning look on her face. "Strand of faux blonde just for you with a complete tag at the end."

"Nice. So one of our victims is a bleacher." Valera grinned a bit. "I'm finishing up on the evidence collected from another crime scene, but I'll get on this one as soon as I'm done." She gave the new CSI an assuring nod and smile. "Call you when I get the results?"

"Of course." Reese smirked while grabbing a pen from the table and jotting her cellphone number down for Valera. "Got anything for me to run elsewhere?" She asked while handing her number over to the brunette.

Nodding, Valera turned on the stool she was sitting on and got up to step across the room to the other side where the printer was now spitting out results from swabs that Alexx had sent over earlier that day. "Yes, swabs from Matthew Spencer came back with DNA from an unknown female donor." She crossed back over to table Reese still stood beside and handed the print out. "No hits in CODIS."

"Lovely." Reese's response held a hint of sarcasm to it. No hits in CODIS usually made the job of finding out the mystery donor was even harder, and Reese was no stranger to that even though half the crimes she investigated back in San Diego had guys with rap sheets a mile and a half long ensuring that they were listed in CODIS no problem. "Well at least we can safely say who ever Ms. Mystery is, she's not shy." Reese lifted a brow as she looked the print out over.

An intrigued look lit up over Valera's face in response to hearing this. "Care to share?" She grinned while taking a seat back on her stool.

"Small bruises down south of the border." Reese replied simply while lifting her gaze to meet the perked attention of the brunette tech. "Calleigh and Eric are working the art gallery homicide right?" As Valera nodded in response to the question, Reese gave her a look of question as she reached for her cellphone held in its holster on her hip by means of her belt.

Valera grinned while sitting up straight in her seat. "Hey by all means give 'em a call." She chuckled while pulling her own cellphone out and scrolling to Eric's number first. She wanted to see how Reese handled herself with the savvy Latino CSI as Valera was sure that the redhead had more than likely caught his attention, an impish grin attempted a move over her lips but was subdued as she read aloud the digits for Eric's cellphone.

Dialing the number as quickly as it was given to her, Reese lifted the phone to her ear, eying the bare grin she could see Valera attempting to hide as she dropped her own cellphone back into her lab coat pocket. The DNA lab tech merely shrugged while starting her work on processing the hair strand that Reese had brought in from autopsy. It took only a few rings before the dialed number picked up and a male voice spoke up.

"_Delko."_

For a brief second Reese felt a bit caught off-guard but recovered quickly while shooting Valera a narrow-eyed look as she started speaking. "Hey it's Reese back at the crime lab."

From his end of the line Eric grinned as soon as he heard her voice come back over to him. _"Ah, Parker, what can I do for you?"_

"Hey, Valera got the results back from some swabs Alexx took the other day off one your victims named Matthew Spencer. Came back as an unknown female donor." Reese glanced back down at the print out she still held in her hand. "And I'm guessing a lady friend of some kind, judging by the bruises I saw."

"_Well the owner did mention that Matthew was seeing someone off and on. Didn't give us name, said he never formally met the girl, just saw her come into the gallery when Matthew would take his lunch break."_

Even though he couldn't see it, Reese nodded in response. "Right. Well, let me know if you need me to look into anything." She smiled a bit as she spoke.

A friendly laugh came back over the line. _"Will do Parker."_

As either end hung up, Reese closed her phone and glided a rather knowing look over at the tech who was desperately trying not to laugh as she worked with evidence. "You have Calleigh's number as well Valera?" She asked, tone of voice completely innocent and serene as she spoke.

"Y-Yeah." Valera fetched her phone out of her pocket yet again and handed it over to the redheaded CSI, taking care to avoid direct eye contact with her least she loose face and start giggling.

Flipping both phones open, Reese multi-tasked in updating her contacts with the blonde CSI's number. "Thanks Valera." Reese smirked while handing the lab tech her phone back.

"No prob," She hesitated a moment while taking her phone and lifted a teasing brow, "Parker."

"Yes, yes, very funny." Reese waved her off. "Good to know the hazing isn't going to comprise of me having my head dunked in the toilet and flushed for unceremonious swirly." She grinned while returning the tease. "Hey, by the way, do you have the file for this case?" Changing gears a bit, Reese took a slightly serious look while glancing about the DNA lab.

Valera nodded while pulling the latex gloves from her hand and retrieving the thin manila file folder from the counter behind her. "Yeah." She handed the file over to Reese and gave her an inquisitive stare. "So, I know Horatio sort of has you running around as the lab messenger-delivery gal, but I was just wondering, were you out on the field back in San Diego?"

Reese nodded while sliding the print out into the file. "I was. I'm a Level 3 CSI." She met Valera's stare with a friendly look on her face. " I've been doing this job for almost seven years now, including my internship at the SD crime lab before graduating from college and becoming a full fledged member of the department. Been out on the field for about four, and have across just about every single crime you can think of and then some."

There was a rather surprised look in Valera's eyes as she listened to Reese give her a brief background on herself. "Wow, so," She grinned a bit as curiosity continued to gnaw away at her now, "How old are you Ms. Parker?"

"How old do you think I am?" Reese grinned like a Cheshire as she knew it was question that more than likely a good handful of the crime lab wanted to know.

"You know, I wanna guess at least thirty, but you have that look about you the makes me wanna second and triple guess myself." She laughed aloud while flipping the long bangs out of her eyes. The slight twinkle in those dark blue eyes of the redhead sparked a sense of excitement in the lab tech who straightened almost immediately. "No way!"

"You were close." Reese chuckled. "I'm twenty-seven. I graduated from high school a year earlier than the rest of my class via lobbing my teachers for the chance at an early testing on the SAT. Scored a fourteen-twenty first time around and headed off to college while the rest of my would be graduating class was headed into Senior year at the high school." There was a slight sheepish smirk on her face while handing the file back over to Valera.

"Wow. So we have a bit of an over achiever in our midst." Valera nodded with approval while taking back the file.

Reese shook her head. "Not really an over achiever, I used school as a way to get away from my dad and his second wife. Figured if I did well in school I could get off to college wherever and leave home." She shrugged while speaking. "I'm more pessimistic than an over achiever if anything."

Valera nodded in understanding before her attention was turned to the machine near her hand as it sounded a small beep. "Well, looks like your faux blonde is up next." She grinned while popping the top of the small cream colored machine.

At the same time, Reese's phone erupted with its trilling ring to alert her of an incoming call. Lifting a brow as she slipped the cellphone from its place on her waist, Reese glanced momentarily at the caller ID catching sight of the flashing name – **Lt. Horatio Caine**. Flipping the phone open, Reese set it to her ear. "Parker."

"_Reese, are you busy at the moment?"_ Horatio's calm demeanor reached her even through the phone as he spoke.

"Not terribly. Need me for something?" She asked while half watching Valera start the machine again with her faux blonde hair inside.

"_Indeed I do. I need your hands over here at the Grove as our B&E has turned into a homicide."_

Reese nodded while lifting a hand to Valera in a silent good-bye while mouthing _'call me'_ before leaving the lab. "Sure thing."

From his end of the conversation, Horatio stared over at Tim Speedle as he was already starting to take photos of the deceased body of the gardener who was face down on the back pathway of the Smithson residence. _"Thank you Reese. Talk to Betty up front at the desk, she'll set you up with a vehicle to get here along with the address to the crime scene."_

"Yes, sir." Reese made her way down the hall, winding her way towards the front desk she had seen when first coming into the crime lab that morning. Hanging up her end after Horatio gave one last instruction, Reese couldn't help but grin slightly at the fact that she could already tell this was just the tip of the iceberg that the day was about to become.


	4. Chapter 3

**Little Girl Lost**

**Chapter Three**

* * *

"_I am Death, not taxes. I turn up only once."_ - **Death, **_**Terry Pratchett's novel FEET OF CLAY**_

* * *

Lieutenant Horatio Caine stood out in front of the massive two-story home situated in a rather upscale looking neighborhood, eyes trained upon the redhead walking up the driveway towards him with a field kit held in her right hand and camera in the left by the wide strap clipped to the expensive piece of equipment. Two things were noticed about his new addition to the team that Horatio noted to have taken care of before the day was out – one; she needed her new Miami-Dade badge to replace the flimsy plastic covered clip-on temporary ID that fluttered from its place on the front of her right hip, and two being that the former San Diego detective needed to be assigned a sidearm. Nodding to himself as he check-marked these two specific tasks he personally needed to get done.

Slipping the dark sunglasses from his eyes, Horatio allowed a small smile to form upon his lips in greeting to the woman as she approached. "Any trouble getting here?" He asked, genuinely interested in how the redhead faired on the streets of the incredibly new and unfamiliar city.

"Not really, thanks to the wonders of GPS." Reese replied while halting just a few steps from her boss and offering a smile back while forced to squint just a little as the high Miami sun attempted to blind her out at that moment. Nodding, Horatio turned sideways briefly in gesture for her to follow him before taking the lead towards the front door of the home. Following after the ginger-haired lieutenant, Reese couldn't help but voice a curious question as they passed by the open side gate, blue eyes catching sight of both Tim Speedle and Dr. Alexx Woods just beyond. "What exactly did you need me for here?" Her right brow lifted as she entered the rather large entry hall of the home.

Several patrol officers were already inside the home along with a balding homicide detective who was taking notes in a small black leather bound memo pad, their attention briefly lifted in response to the entrance as the two CSI's walked in. The homicide detective paused in his work to acknowledge the lieutenant walking in and raised a brow at the redheaded woman following after him at the same time. "Horatio."

"Frank." Horatio halted a few paces from the homicide detective, a serious and almost grim look on his face. "What do we have so far?"

Wetting his thumb with a quick lick, Frank Tripp back pedaled through his notes and stopped on the first page he had started with. "Husband's upstairs, single gun shot to the back of the head. The wife's in the kitchen with two gunshots to the chest." The Texan accent apparent as he spoke. Flipping through a few more pages, he paused a moment. "The dead landscaper in the backyard is a Greg Sanchez, worked for**D&L Landscaping **and has a single gunshot to the back; through and through from Alexx's initial observation." Closing his small pad, Frank again cast a glance to the unfamiliar female face with a bit of a puzzled look on his own face.

Nodding as he listened to Frank speak, Horatio turned momentarily to cast a glance at the redhead beside him. "Reese Parker this is detective Frank Tripp. Frank, detective Reese Parker formerly of the San Diego crime lab." He introduced the two, watching as they shook hands before delving into what he needed Reese to do. "Okay, here's what I need you to do for me, we can't touch the bodies until Alexx goes over them, photos and evidence off the bodies collected please ma'am."

"No problem." Reese dipped her head slightly in acknowledgment to her orders before glancing off to the left where she could see the staircase winding up to the second floor. "I'll start with the husband."

As soon as Reese was up the stairs and out of earshot, Frank turned to Horatio with a slight smirk on his face. "So that's the new CSI you mentioned the other week?" A responsive nod from the lieutenant prompted Frank to further inquire about the redhead. "Tell me again how you got a Californian girl all the way out to Florida?"

"Another time perhaps." Horatio smiled faintly while peering off towards the kitchen further inside the house. "Frank, did anyone in the neighborhood see anything?"

The homicide detective nodded in response while squinting out the open door and across the street. "Apparently D&L Landscaping comes out about once a month to take care of the yards in the neighborhood. Guys usually arrive at around six in the morning and leave by two. No one heard anything or saw anything, except for the crew boss who came looking for Greg and found him in the backyard."

"And where is our crew boss right now Frank?" Horatio lifted a brow.

Flipping his memo pad closed, Frank took the lead back out the front door with Horatio following after him.

Upstairs, Reese Parker made her way down the long hall slowly, eyes sweeping across the cream colored plush carpet that felt almost sponge-like beneath her feet. The floors held the same immaculate appearance as the front yard causing the CSI to lift a slightly amused brow as she peered in through the various open bedroom doors. The last bedroom at the end of the hall had a single patrol officer standing off to the side of the double doors leading into what Reese immediately took to be the master bedroom. Nodding to the officer as she passed, Reese entered the room and paused to exhale as she stared down at the lifeless body of an adult male lying face down on cream white beddings now stained brilliant red about his head.

Setting her field kit down, Reese lifted the camera she had in hand to her eye and took several photos from her place at the door and then proceeded forward. Until Alexx looked over the body, it was off-limits, but everything else was open to her. Near the foot of the king sized bed, Reese set her field kit down and cracked it open. Slipping her hands into a pair of latex gloves and taking the mini maglite from its place at the bottom of the kit, Reese stood to her feet and began her search of the room.

Carefully, Reese surveyed the area about the large bed, gingerly picking up the long flowing border of the bed skirt to peer underneath into the dark space that in her own personal life at home would normally become just another _"storage space". _The light of the black maglite highlighted several women shoe boxes. Unfortunately enough for Reese, they were shoved almost towards the exact middle beneath the bed, making it almost impossible for her to fetch them without literally crawling under the bed itself.

"Damn." She muttered under her breath through gritted teeth as she let the bed skirt back into place and sat back on her heels. Sweeping her maglite across the line created by the meeting of kick-boards and carpet, Reese paused as something glinted back at her once the light struck it. A slender brow quirked immediately as the CSI stood to her feet. Fetching tweezers from her kit along with a small evidence bag and a marker, Reese began the process of documenting and collecting a spent casing tucked up against the same wall the headboard of the bed butted up against.

"Well now this is a surprise." The voice of Alexx Woods entered the room along with the tall ME herself. She grinned, red lips pulling back to flash her trademark dazzling smile as she laid eyes upon the redhead she had become acquainted with just that morning. She smiled a bit more once Reese glanced back over her shoulder at her. "Horatio's calling out the reinforcements already I see." She lifted a brow in amusement while crossing the room and coming to stand beside the bed where the second of three bodies was strewn out across the bed.

Reese felt her lips curve upwards a bit as she stood to her feet, fingers pressing down across the seal of the evidence bag as she crossed back to her field kit. "Something like that." Reese replied while watching Alexx begin her overview of the victim.

Alexx exhaled a small sigh while pulling on a new pair of latex gloves before even bending down to examine the head wound. "Well honey, looks like you got one long shift ahead of you." She tutted under her breath while tilting the head of the husband to the side in order to get a better view of the gunshot to the head. "Stippling around and in the wound, suggests this was a close proximity shot."

"Execution style." Reese felt her mouth twist into a grimace as Alexx nodded in agreement to this. "At least on the husband anyways. Detective Tripp said that wife took two to the chest down in the kitchen."

"Well, baby, this scene is all yours." Alexx stated while peeling the bloody gloves from her hands. "I won't know more until autopsy."

There was a faint smile appearing on Reese's' lips as she nodded. "I'll see you back at the morgue Alexx."

As Alexx left the bedroom, Reese started processing the crime scene in the bedroom. More photos were taken, samples of the blood stain taken, foreign fibers standing out against the cream white beddings were collected, and once the body of the late Richard Smithson was taken out by the coroner transport it freed the rest of the area for Reese to finish processing. The sheets were stripped and set inside larger paper bags, the comforter, pillow cases, the pillows, everything but the mattress itself was tagged and bagged. Photos of the mattress itself were also taken before Reese set her camera aside and got back down on her hands and knees in order to retrieve the shoe boxes from under the bed. Scrawled across the top of either box in black permanent marker was the single word – **photos. **

The cardboard lids were slid off and the contents of the boxes quickly glanced over. The photos were anything but happy family portraits and birthday memories, causing Reese to lift a brow as she collected them as evidence. In all, it had taken Reese nearly a half hour before she cleared the bedroom and headed downstairs to process the kitchen next. Officers still lingered inside the home near the entryway and one stood off beside the sharply angled open entry into the massive kitchen.

"Wow, and I thought aunt's kitchen was huge." Reese breathed while pausing a moment to take in the kitchen that looked like it belonged in a house from an episode of **MTV** **Cribs. **Her eyes traveled across the high vaulted ceiling with exposed beams painted the same butter brown color of the kitchen itself. Industrial kitchen appliances in their stainless steel brushed faces gleamed in this afternoon sunlight drifting in from skylights and a huge window staring out on the front yard.

"Bet she didn't have to pay nearly half a mill for it though." Tim Speedle's monotone voice broke in almost at the same time her eyes fell upon him, camera up and snapping photos of the deceased woman crumpled in a heap on her side.

"No, she didn't. Easier times back then." Reese returned while stepping into the kitchen. "What'd Alexx say about the wife?"

Clicking off one last photo, Tim cast a half glance over to the redhead briefly, watching her survey the dead at their feet. "Two shots to the chest, through and through. Alexx mentioned that the husband had stippling on the back of his head, but there's nothing like that on her." Tim nodded down at Janet Smithson. "Did you find anything upstairs?"

"As far as out of place, one casing and several fibers from the bed. Collected everything else covered in the vic's blood; sheets, comforter, pillows. Pretty much everything but the mattress." Reese replied while taking a step back and giving the kitchen another go over with her eyes alone. "Anything down here?"

"I was just about to start." Tim stated while setting his camera down inside of his field kit. "I'll take this half the kitchen up to the body," He gestured towards the back half of the kitchen heading out towards what appeared an access entryway to the garage, and then glanced back to Reese and beyond her, "And you can have from the body back."

Lifting her brows in a semi response, Reese set her field kit down on the floor beside her feet and grabbed a new pair of gloves before touching anything in the kitchen. Systematically the two CSI's combed over the kitchen before the body was removed, maglites illuminating the dark and or shadowed spaces of the kitchen for a better view of evidence left behind.

Off alongside the far set of lower cabinets, Reese spotted small blood droplets left in a tale-tale trail leading out of the kitchen. "Hello DNA." She muttered under her breath while setting a marker down beside the first drop and snapping a photo of it.

"What, did you find something?" Tim glanced over from his place further into the kitchen as he had yet to find the spent bullets and or casings.

Using a swab to take a sample, Reese lifted the elongated q-tip up to her line of vision and stared at it briefly before dropping it down inside of its designated container. "Blood. Could be from our shooter." She glanced up from her crouched position as Tim approached her side. "You know, I'm confused about something. All three were shot, someone had to have heard something, even a scream."

"Officers are outside questioning some of the neighbors who are home, maybe one of them heard something." Tim shrugged. "You said you found a casing upstairs in the bedroom?"

"Yeah. First glance, it looks like a forty-five, but until I can get it back to the lab, can't be sure." Reese replied while swabbing the other several blood droplets on the kitchen floor. Glancing back over her shoulder at the deceased, she lifted a brow. "She's got defensive wounds on her forearms, maybe she put up a fight before being shot down."

"One can only hope." Tim murmured as his brow furrowed slightly. "We just need to find those casings and bullets to match with ones in the husband and landscaper."

Standing to her feet as the coroner transport entered to retrieve the body of Janet Smithson, Reese popped the final swab into its container and cast a look over toward the refrigerator. "Well, it's a kitchen. Anything small that hits the ground tends to roll." Her eyes briefly met with his before nodding over at the stainless steel double door appliance.

A look crossed his face as he caught on to what she was getting to. With a short exhale, Tim gestured for her to come help him move the refrigerator. It didn't take much effort with two full grown adults working on moving the massive unit, but it did prove to be a bit difficult because of the sheer size and weight of the thing. Sliding the fridge out from the wall so that there was at least a six inch gap behind it, Reese hoped up on to the counter top beside it, adjusting herself so that she didn't fall straight into the sink while leaning backwards and shinning the mini maglite down into the gap. Tim dropped to his hands and knees, his own flashlight illuminating underneath to catch sight of anything small and made of metal.

"At least our shooter isn't smart enough to clean up after himself." Reese mused after catching sight of a spent casing that had rolled under the fridge and stopped up against the back kick-board.

"They never really are." A grunt followed Tim's agreement as he reached out to the extent in which his arm would allow him to squeeze beneath the minimal amount of space that a refrigerator offered anyone. Gloved fingers feathered against the casing slightly as Tim was just within a millimeter of grabbing the small piece of evidence. "Damn." He grumbled quietly under his breath with a frustrated sense of defeat as he pulled his arm back out and sat back on his knees. Glancing out and around the right side of the fridge where Reese still sat perched upon the counter top, his brow creased slightly. "Can you even grab the one you found?"

"Yeah, sure no problem. Just let me go expose myself to some cosmic radiation first." Reese muttered with a frown before catching glance of the rather confused look on Tim's face. "Sorry, I have a habit of making comic book references." A sheepish look overtook her face as she hopped down off the counter and looked up at the massive construction of stainless steel and refrigeration plastic. "I guess we could attempt moving it a bit more." Reese bit her bottom lip while glancing back behind herself where the kitchen's small island stood cemented just ten inches from her. As she turned her head, she caught sight of the still rather confused look on Tim Speedle's face as he stared at her. The creeping feel of being judged crawled up her spine causing Reese to lift her brows. "What?"

Shaking his head, Tim lost the confused look while looking between the fridge and the island. "Nothing. You just didn't strike me as someone who read comic books."

A sense of relief flooded through her system as she cracked a small smile in response to his comment. "That's what everyone says." She couldn't help but laugh a little as the titled _"nerd" _side of her personality had decided to make its grand entrance. "So, we gonna move this behemoth or what?"


	5. Chapter 4

**Little Girl Lost**

**Chapter Four**

* * *

"_There's so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?"_ - **Dick Cavett**

* * *

Reese Parker rubbed the back of her neck as she walked down the hall of the morgue towards the autopsy theater for the second time that day. A grimace contorted her face as she attempted to massage the knot from the muscle only to feel her shoulder stiffen a bit as well. Between herself and Tim Speedle, they had managed to get the massive double door refrigerator further out into the kitchen with enough space for Reese to drop down behind it and snap off a few photos of their found evidence and bag both separately. Getting out from behind the near monolithic appliance proved to be a rather unsavory venture as Reese had little room to get herself up on to either counter without knocking something over, falling into a sink, or knocking the crown of her head into the corner of the suspended cabinets.

Fortunately enough for the redhead she was able to get out with the help of her co-worker who seemed to find a mild sense of amusement in the whole event before they finished up processing the kitchen and left. Once back at the lab, Reese found herself running between **trace, DNA, and ballistics **with the evidence collected from the crime scene in _the Grove_, and retracing her way back to each department as pages came in from the lab techs with results to earlier evidence pertaining to the case Calleigh Duquesne and Eric Delko were working. Calls were made to the respected CSI's before Reese found even a moment within the half hour whirlwind of running back and forth to take a moment to breathe. Taking a moment to wander off to the break room for a cup of coffee, Reese had a mere five minutes of peace before a page from Alexx reached her.

And thusly, the redhead now ran a hand through her short hair as she walked the hall of the morgue while breathing out a bit of a pent up breath before stepping in through the double doors. Immediately her blue eyes fell on the three medical tables holding the bodies of the deceased from the residence in _the Grove_ that become a crime scene for triple homicide.

"Welcome back." Alexx greeted the CSI who flashed her a small smile while snapping on a pair of gloves after having shrugged one of the blue lab coats on first. "How ya doing so far honey?" The head ME gave the woman standing before a once over, noting to herself the fact that Reese appeared to be still in the same spirits as she had when they were first introduced.

"Well, I was kind of getting dizzy there for a moment running circles in the lab, but I'm doing good." Reese returned with a brief smirk before turning her attention to the victims that were laid out for autopsy. "So, what else is there for us to know about our unfortunate three?"

Alexx nodded as she moved to the wife first and set a gentle hand upon the deceased blonde woman's brow. "Two gun shots to the chest, through and through. Defensive wounds on her forearms along with what looks like skin caught up under her nails. Poor baby put up one hell of a fight before she was killed." Alexx sighed quietly as she met Reese's gaze. "Also found some foreign material in her hair, looks grainy, like sand."

For a moment the middle of Reese's forehead furrowed. "Sand? That kitchen looked practically spotless aside from the blood. It must transferred from her attacker during a struggle. I found a set of knives with the chef's knife missing." She lifted a brow as the theory of Mrs. Smithson using the piece of cutlery as a means to defend herself prodded at the forefront of her thinking.

"Chef's knife?" A brief look of puzzlement crossed Alexx's face as she tried to remember exactly which knife that was in a kitchen set.

A grin formed on Reese's lips. "It's the one Norman Bates uses in Psycho to kill Marion Crane in the shower." Her grin grew a bit wider as Alexx's face lifted with recognition now while pointing at the CSI with a knowing finger. Reese nodded a bit with a sheepish look. "I'm a movie fanatic."

"Baby, ain't nothing wrong with that." Alexx waved her off before returning to work with their victim. "Now, I've got a question for you. Do you want to collect the evidence now on her, or shall we move on to the husband and the landscaper?"

"Let's go over these two guys first. I wanna at least know what we're looking at before I start looking for what we don't know." Reese replied while exhaling a short breath.

Nodding, Alexx stepped around the foot of the table and moved on to the husband, Richard Smithson with Reese following her lead over. "One shot to the back of the head, stippling inside the entry which of course we agreed at the crime scene means a close proximity shot execution style. No defensive wounds on him anywhere." Alexx sighed while glancing up at Reese. "It's hard to say whether or not he was killed first before his wife and the landscaper, but cause of death is the same for all three." She moved towards the landscaper Greg Sanchez, the only victim that Reese had not been able to view at the crime scene. "One shot to the neck, severed the anterior jugular vein. Cause of death was exsanguination."

"The guy bled to death." Reese exhaled a short sigh while rubbing her right temple briefly. "Was this one a through and through as well?"

Alexx grinned while nodding down at the deceased, elbows tucked against her sides with her gloved hands held up before her. "He's all yours baby."

A slip of a smile fluttered across her face as she took the ME's cue to being examining the body. "Well, no stippling on the entry wound, so we can rule out close proximity on him." Reese slipped her hand under Greg Sanchez's shoulder carefully before tilting him to the side just enough in order to see the exit wound staring back at her. "Through and through." She murmured aloud while setting the stiff body back into its original position. "Where the wife and the landscaper were killed, no bullets were recovered. Just the casings." Glancing over to Richard Smithson, her brow furrowed a bit as something seemed to be confusing her. "Weird."

"What's weird?" Alexx echoed her small statement back in a question of her own, a crease forming across her forehead as she wondered now what had caught the CSI's attention so suddenly.

"Janet and Greg have straight through and through shots. Richard was shot in the head at point blank range, shouldn't that have been a through and through as well?" Reese gave Alexx a rather confused look, to which was matched with a lifted look in response from the ME.

"Well honey, let's find out what secrets Mr. Smithson is hiding in that head of his." Alexx motioned with a small wave of her hand for the redhead to join her beside the husband as she prepared the overhanging x-ray scope to take a photo of the unseen.

Fifteen minutes later and the two women stood side by side on the second level of the theater where massive light wall was placed. Both Alexx and Reese stood with arms crossed and head tilted slightly to the left as they stared in a sense of slight surprise at the X-ray before them. Apparently the bullet that had killed Mr. Smithson had been stopped from becoming a through and through thanks in part to a metal plate across the front of the man's skull.

"Huh, now it makes perfect sense." Reese murmured aloud, a sense of sarcasm playing just on the very edge of her words that had Alexx chuckling quietly beside her. Giving Alexx a raised look, Reese nodded back towards the theater below them. "Shall we?"

The next hour and a half was spent collecting evidence off the bodies of the deceased. Trace found in the blonde hair of Janet Smithson by Alexx was carefully combed out and collected, and the underside of the woman's nails scraped for any caught skin cells left behind in the struggle. The same was done to Greg Sanchez and Richard Smithson. Reese focused all her attention upon the victims, eyes roving over what seemed like every inch of their bodies for whatever had been left behind in their deaths. Bruising on Richard's left shoulder blade was photographed and identified to be antemortem, which caused Reese to wonder if there had been a struggle leading up to the initial killing shot. Richard's fingernails were scraped as well in light of this.

Along with the evidence collected from the bodies, Reese also left with the clothes that all three victims had been wearing at the time of their death for processing at the lab. Alexx would page her once the toxicology results were in.

Back at the lab, another round of evidence drop off was played out with Reese having already found a far much easier path to track around than before as she was becoming much more comfortable with the lab itself. By four o'clock the redhead had found another momentary pause in the busy schedule set upon her to steal away in the break room for another cup of coffee she could already feel her body in demand of.

One packet of _Sweet'N Low_ was all that got mixed into the otherwise deep pitch liquid that steamed peacefully within the confines of the small styrofoam cup. Stirring the drink a few seconds, Reese tossed the red plastic stir stick in the bin and slowly sipped at the immensely hot drink she needed to get herself through the rest of the shift.

"You know, most people tend to take more cream and sugar in their coffee then that." The soft chuckle lifted through the break room as the blonde Calleigh Duquesne stepped in and made a beeline for the coffee pot as well.

Reese smirked slightly as she brought the coffee towards her lips. "True, but I like a cup of '_joe_' not '_josephine_'" This little quip caught a light laugh from Calleigh as she poured herself a cup of coffee. "What? I'm serious. Might as well ask people if they want some coffee with their creamer." Reese grinned while taking a sip from her own drink.

"No, no, I hear ya on that one." Calleigh laughed while glancing over at her. "So, how's your first day going? Any of the boys try and haze you yet?"

"Not yet, no. Should I be expecting that any time soon?" Reese lifted a brow as she leaned back against the lip of the counter. "Because I was pretty sure that kind of thing only happens to actual new blood, not transferred detectives."

Calleigh shook her head, blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail trailing back and forth across her shoulder blades. "Never know with Eric and Speed." She grinned while emptying several packets of cane sugar into her own personal coffee mug. "But honestly," She discarded the used paper packets and dusted her hands off as she turned to face the redhead standing with her. "How's your day been?" She crossed her arms over her chest in a nonchalant manner while holding a friendly look upon her face.

Reese finished a sip of her coffee, bobbing her head briefly before actually answering the question posed upon her. "I feel like I've been running circles through this lab non-stop, but at least I've got the lab memorized now." She tilted her head back enough to stare up at the ceiling tiles overhead briefly before glancing over at the blonde CSI with a curious look on her face. "Have guys gotten anything new on your art gallery homicide?"

"Well, after we talked to the gallery owner we found out that Matthew Spencer was supposed to get off work at around nine that evening, Mark Sidle was closing the store and doing the cash out. We collected the surveillance videos from the security cameras in the art gallery and sent them to A/V. Cooper's going over them right now looking for the time frame in which the two boys were killed." Calleigh sighed while rubbing at the middle of her forehead. "You said the trace results from the unknown substance under Mark's nails came back as a combination of saccharin, dextrose, and cream of tartar,"

"Your basic artificial sweetener." Reese nodded while naming off what the substance was and prompting for Calleigh to continue.

Calleigh grinned while taking a sip from the coffee she had allowed to cool for a moment. "Right; but the break room for the employees at the gallery doesn't have any artificial sweeteners, only raw sugar. He had to have gone out somewhere else for his _lunch_."

"A likely possibility." Reese mused while taking a longer drink from her drink. "Did you guys find out anything about the girl Matthew was seeing?"

A sigh escaped Calleigh's lips as she thrummed her fingertips against the side of her coffee mug."Nothing yet, just a description from the owner. He says he never knew her by name. Hopefully we'll get her face on the surveillance tapes since she's not in CODIS or AFIS."

"Thinking about running her picture through the DMV?" Reese tilted her head to the side with inquiring look upon her face directed at Calleigh as she spoke.

Another broad grin slipped over the blonde woman's mouth. "You know I might just have to see if I can get Horatio to let you work this case with me and boot Eric to the one Speed's working."

Reese gave a short laugh after finishing off her coffee and tossing her empty cup into the trash. "Tag-teaming the boys? That sounds like fun." She smiled while slipping her phone from its place on her hip yet again as a page came through. "We'll have to talk more about this little switch-a-roo later Calleigh, I gotta run to ballistics."

"Sure thing Reese. Hey, what time does your shift end today by the way?" Calleigh followed the redhead out into the hall, pausing just outside the break room door.

"Uh, I believe seven. Why?" Reese lifted a curious brow.

"Perfect. Meet me in the locker room at the end of your shift and we'll go out for a few drinks." Calleigh smiled. "First round is on me of course."

A broad grin split Reese's mouth immediately. "Sounds like fun. See you at seven."

The two women parted ways, returning back to their own specific tasks to finish up before the end of their shifts.


	6. Chapter 5

**Little Girl Lost**

**Chapter Five**

* * *

"_You are alive. So live."_ - **Tomi Miyasaki**

* * *

Trace was the last stop for Reese as she received a final page from Aaron Peters concerning the sand-like substance combed out of Janet Smithson's hair. It was confirmed that the trace found in her blonde locks was in fact sand, but a specific grain that was normally used as an additive in making bricks. While it appeared to be a generic type of sand used by most brick manufacturing plants, it at least gave those investigating the triple homicide a step into the direction of who their killer was. Calling Tim Speedle with the new information, Reese also passed along information pertaining to the bullet that she and Alexx had taken out from Richard Smithson's head.

By then seven o'clock rolled around and Reese was officially off the clock and free to head home. Saying a few goodbyes to Aaron and even Valera as she headed for the locker room, Reese veered off course for a moment to stop off at Lt. Horatio Caine's office and speak with her new boss before leaving. As Reese approached the office of the ginger-haired lieutenant, she noticed that his door stood slightly ajar and peered in through the six inch gap. Horatio was currently on the office phone with someone. Not wanting to be rude and just waltz right on in, Reese knocked softly on the door while pushing the door open a bit more to make her presence known to the lieutenant as he lifted his gaze to meet hers'. Upon catching sight of the redhead in the doorway, Horatio motioned with a wave of his hand for her to come in and take a seat as he wrapped up his conversation.

"Yes, that's correct." Horatio gave Reese a brief smile as she sat down in the same chair she had been seated in that morning. "Uh-huh, thank you very much. I'll see you tomorrow." And with that, Horatio set the phone back in its cradle and turned his attention fully upon the woman before him. "I noticed something today when you arrived at the crime scene in _the Grove_." His right brow lifted as he spoke, a friendly look holding his face as he leaned forward in his seat and setting his hands upon the top his desk clasped. "You're missing a few key items on your person that I believe are a bit important."

This comment caused Reese to sit up a bit straighter in her seat with a bit of a puzzled look on her face as she began to quickly run over everything upon her at that moment. As nothing was coming to mind at that moment as to what he could be talking about, Reese could feel her mouth twitching into a small frown.

"Back in San Diego, you carried a sidearm on you at all times, didn't you detective?" Horatio started to grin just a little as he could see her becoming rather self-reprimanding. His grin only grew as the light of realization clicked in her mind at that moment. "That and I don't think you normally walked around with just a plastic ID card hanging off your belt."

A look of relief seemed to sweep over her features as she quirked a rather sheepish smirk while sitting back in her seat. "Yeah. Yeah, I did."

Nodding, Horatio turned slightly in his chair while reaching for the top right draw of his desk and pulled it open. A few seconds later and he was setting a Miami-Dade PD badge down on his desk and slid it towards Reese. "Makes your place in the crime lab much more official I think." He smiled while watching her take the badge and hold it in her hand, examining the golden shield she was going to be wearing for more than likely a long time. "Tomorrow, I'd like for you to meet me at the department firing range first thing in the morning. I want to get you your sidearm as soon as possible."

Reese listened to Horatio but kept her eyes on the badge in her hand, running her thumb over the gold plated piece of metal mounted to the thicker piece of black leather. Just staring at it and holding it brought a small smile to her lips as it reminded her of nearly everything in her life that pushed her down the path to where she was now. It felt good to have a badge on her again. "Yeah, sure, no problem." Reese looked up, meeting the easy stare of the lieutenant in front of her. "Horatio, thank you for asking me to come out here."

"I think I should be the one thanking you." Horatio inclined his head a bit. "After all, it's a big jump from California to Florida."

Shaking her head, Reese chuckled quietly. "I don't think you need to. I'm glad to help and I am grateful for the opportunity to work here."

Nodding, Horatio offered her another smile before delving into the several cases she had been running evidence about the lab on. "The triple homicide I called you out to, how did that go?"

"Well, all three victims were killed by gunfire; recovered four casings from the scene, and only one bullet that was lodged in Richard Smithson's skull thanks to the metal plate on the front that kept it from being a through and through like with the wife and Greg Sanchez." Reese explained while breathing an exhale as she recapped the collection of evidence from the crime scene. "I did find in the kitchen a separate blood sample further away from the wife, and defensive wounds on her forearms suggested she struggled with her attacker before finally being gunned down. There was a set of knives in the kitchen missing the chef's knife that I couldn't find anywhere else in the kitchen." Her mind easily slipped back to the results from DNA concerning the blood swab and scrapings from Janet's fingernails she had taken in to Valera. "The blood I found and the skin Alexx scrapped from Janet's nails belong to the same contributor and came back with a hit from CODIS; an ex-con named Jerry Singer."

"Right, right. Speed informed me about that." Horatio nodded. "Frank brought our ex-con in for questioning about three hours ago. Jerry apparently is a friend of Richard's and claims he had been over there last night for dinner and cut his hand helping out in the kitchen." He lifted a brow while watching the look on Reese's face take more of a skeptical look. "Any thoughts?"

"That doesn't explain why his skin is under Janet's nails." Reese pointed out. "That and the blood I collected today seemed far too moist to have been there since last night." Her brow furrowed and a frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Did you see what the cut on this guy looked like?"

A grin formed on Horatio's face as he watched her mull over the case in her head. _I've seen that look before. It's the same look she had the day I first met her. _"In fact I did. In my opinion, I think we need to find that missing kitchen knife, wouldn't you agree?"

A light laugh escaped Reese as she fingered the badge in her hands. "Something tells me I get to go on a field-trip tomorrow after the firing range."

Horatio merely smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow Reese."

Standing from her seat, Reese nodded and gave her own goodbye for the day before leaving his office and heading off towards the locker room to meet up with Calleigh. As soon as Reese stepped foot inside the locker room she was greeted immediately by the grin of not just Calleigh but also Eric Delko who had a look on his face she somewhat recognized. "_Hola_." She greeted her co-workers with a smile while making her way to the locker that had been designated to her that morning.

"Hey you, I almost started to think you stood me up." Calleigh grinned while shouldering her purse.

Reese laughed while popping her locker door open. "We may have only known each other for a day, but I can promise I would never do that to you Calleigh." She replied while retrieving her purse from the only shelf inside her locker.

"Now does that promise apply only to Calleigh or can it apply to the rest of us?" Eric grinned from his place on the long wooden bench running in between the two hands of lockers used by the staff. In response to his comment, Eric earned a swat to the shoulder by the blonde CSI who merely shook her head.

"Hope you don't mind, but we'll have a little extra company for drinks." Calleigh nodded her head down at Eric who merely held to his grin still.

Slipping the broad leather strap of her purse over her shoulder, a quiet laugh huffed through her nose as she shut the locker door and glanced over at the Latino CSI. "Am I that interesting?"

"New face in the lab straight out of California who has what sounded like a natural Spanish accent when she's not speaking English, yeah just a little curious." Eric replied, a brow lifting as he also referred back to Reese's use of _'hola'_ and the very distinct trace of an accent. "That and Calleigh's buying first round." He snickered while standing and following said CSI and Reese out of the locker room, grinning a bit more as Reese laughed aloud to his comment.

Taking Calleigh's car, the small group of three adults chatted briefly during their drive to a bar Calleigh knew to be a quiet place to just sit and talk over a few beers. Both Calleigh and Eric pointed out key streets for Reese to begin memorizing, places of interest she might want to check out and what areas she should more than likely avoid after nightfall even if she was armed. Twenty minutes later and the trio was settling down into a corner booth with a round of beers coming their way.

"So, Reese, tell us about yourself." Calleigh smiled while pushing a stray piece of blonde hair back behind her ear. "We already know you're a Level 3 CSI out of San Diego."

Reese chuckled quietly while crossing her right leg over the left under the table. "Well, I'm originally from San Francisco, born and raised. Lived on Lombard Street up on Russian Hill, graduated from high school a year earlier than my class and went off to college at USC."

"Oh, so we have a Trojan running around our lab." Eric grinned from his seat beside Reese, looking between her and Calleigh as he spoke. "What'd you major in?"

"Graduated with a bachelor in medical technology. Became the specialized blood splatter analyst for the lab I worked as an intern in before becoming a full fledged CSI there." Reese shrugged before glancing up as the waiter approached with their drinks. Once their drinks were passed around and the waiter departed, Reese couldn't help but smile a bit as Calleigh lifted her drink along with Eric.

"Well, here's to our new colleague, may she find Miami to her liking." Calleigh grinned.

All three bottles clinked together at the middle of the table before each CSI took a drink right after. Eric set his beer aside while turning his attention back on the attractive redhead beside him in the booth. "So, what made you become a CSI?"

"Sort of runs in the family I guess; law enforcement. My dad's a retired Marine lieutenant who served as an MP, and my mom was a homicide detective in the San Francisco PD." Reese shrugged while sitting back against the red plastic covered booth.

"Oh yeah?" Eric lifted a brow while taking a drink from his beer. "Your mom still working the streets?"

A grim smile pulled across Reese's mouth as she shook her head. "She, uh, she was shot and killed in the line duty during a police raid when I was twelve."

Calleigh's face twitched with a grimace as she glanced over at Eric, who was already setting a hand on Reese's shoulder. "Reese I'm sorry." Calleigh sighed while reaching out and patting the top of her hand.

"It's fine. I just haven't actually talked about my mom with anyone in a while." Reese shook her head. "It's not a bad memory or anything. In fact that's what mainly pushed me towards law enforcement. She sort of inspired me, much to the chagrin of my father." A smile cracked across her mouth as she spoke.

"Ah, so the other question," Eric grinned while giving her shoulder a squeeze before removing his hand. "Is Reese Parker an only child or does she have siblings we should know about. Particularly if you have an older over protective brother." He winked while nudging Reese's arm with his elbow in a teasing gesture.

A laugh and a grin escaped from Reese. "No, no. I'm the only child of an Irish man and Spanish woman who came across the pond when they were kids." She caught sight of the rather alighted look upon Eric's face and couldn't help but feel curious. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just I wouldn't have pegged you right away for an Irish Latina." Somehow that little bit of information caught his attention greatly. Taking a drink from his beer, the grin on his face still there, Eric eyed Reese with a look that had Calleigh laughing from her place in the booth across from them.

"Eric if you're gonna flirt with the girl do it on your time." Calleigh laughed before taking a drink. "So Reese, you gonna let us in on how Horatio got you up out of California?" The slender brow over her left arched as she cupped her chin within the palms of her hands, elbows propped up on the table.

An agreeing nod from Eric in prompt for her to explain just how a California girl got to Florida, as he too was incredibly curious. "Yeah I wanna hear this too, but not before getting another round coming our way." Eric smirked while catching the attention of the waiter who merely nodded to the fact that he would be over with another round.

Taking the opportunity of the pause in the conversation, Reese couldn't help but show a rather puzzled look on her face as she glanced over to Calleigh. "Hey, just out of curiosity, is Tim Speedle not one for drinks?"

Calleigh chuckled while shaking her head. "Oh no, he is." She grinned. "I'm just not sure why he didn't tag along since Mr. Suave over here hitched a ride."

"Hey now, is it my fault you were trying to kidnap Reese for yourself and I so happened to here about it." Eric held his hands up defensively while laughing all the same. "But to be honest I have no idea where Speed is. I caught him the hall and told him we were somewhat all going out." Shrugging Eric reached over and collected the empty bottles before the two women he sat with and passed them over to the waiter who had come by with new drinks.

Calleigh and Reese exchanged looks before shrugging as well and lifting the bottle of beer before them to their lips. For the rest of the night, the three exchanged stories of the strangest and or weirdest cases they worked, funny moments they had been involved in, and just joking around with one another until it got near last call. In all the three CSIs only had two drinks apiece with water finishing out the night before they left. Driving back to the crime lab where Eric and Reese had left their cars, the group continued to chat and eventually Reese came about obtaining both Eric and Calleigh's home phone numbers in case she couldn't get a hold of them on a cellphone during off days and what not.

Back at the crime lab, that was still buzzing with the swing and night shift, Calleigh dropped her two co-workers off and then headed home herself leaving Eric and Reese in the parking lot. Fortunately enough for the two CSIs, or fortunately enough for Eric, their cars were parked too far from another.

"H got you coming in early tomorrow?" Eric glanced over at the redhead beside him who was already digging car keys out of her purse.

"Yeah he does. I'm supposed to meet with him at the department's firing range in order to get in my proficiency test to snag my sidearm before the end of the week." Reese grinned slightly to herself. "That and I have a scheduled field trip back out to _the Grove_ as well."

A laugh escaped Eric as he pulled his own car keys from the pocket of his pants. "I didn't think it was going to take too long before he put you out on the field, but that was incredibly fast." He stole a glance from the corner of his eye and gave her another once over, this time taking a decent look at her. Reese was tall, even without the heels he could tell the European height was there, and she had a different body build compared to the other women he worked with at the crime lab. She wasn't Calleigh slender but she was definitely sporting a lean look that he assumed had to be from playing sports back in high school or something, and now he was seeing the Spanish side in her just from the profile. He grinned while shaking his head at the thoughts circling through his mind. "Well good luck, because I'm pretty sure H is gonna have Speed taking you on that field trip."

"Why do you say that? He seemed pretty easy to work with today." Reese wrinkled her nose at the thought that maybe she hadn't picked up on something.

"It's not that he's hard to work with or anything, but his personality is a bit rough around the edges." He chuckled, pausing at the door to his car as Reese veered off towards her own a few spaces down in the row behind his. "Hey, Parker, good luck at the firing range tomorrow."

Turning in her walk to glance back over her shoulder, Reese smiled while waving at Eric. "Yeah, thanks." Returning to her walk towards the navy blue Tahoe she had brought over from California via the same service that her belongings over while she took a plane, Reese smiled to herself while clicking the automatic unlock on the small remote in her hand. _I think I'll be just fine._


	7. Chapter 6

**Little Girl Lost**

**Chapter Six**

* * *

"_There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other eleven?"_ - **Yuri Orlov**_**Lord of War**_

* * *

"Now that's," Horatio smiled as the paper target seemed to just float towards himself and the red-haired woman standing at his left, "Quite impressive." His comment was of course in reference to the large sheet of paper hanging from two clips and holding the black silhouette of a large male body outline with rings and number indicated in specific areas. Target practice, or in the case of the new CSI that had joined the Miami-Dade crime lab from the San Diego crime lab, a proficiency exam to get an issue sidearm before the end of the week.

Both Horatio and Reese stood in one of the department firing range lanes, clear safety glasses over their eyes and ear guards already slipped down around their necks. While Horatio held a rather impressed look on his face, Reese had a rather placid expression with her head tilted to the left just a bit as if studying the clustered holes on the target. The two CSIs had been on the firing range since seven that morning in order to get Reese's proficiency exam with a sidearm done and over with in order to have her service pistol issued before the end of the week. The last thing Horatio wanted was to have Reese out on the field at any given time without the proper protection the rest of his crew had.

The paper target hung before Horatio and Reese just two feet from them, the near chest high shelf being the only barrier that supplied that two foot gap. All shots had been grouped upon the head and the heart, or the "kill zone" as some would dub it. There was a brief look of pride that fluttered over Reese's face before Horatio spoke up and it disappeared. "You have an excellent shot Reese." He nodded in approval while reaching up and out to remove the paper target from the track it dangled from. The large sheet rustled as it was dragged over the shelf. "Care for a souvenir?"

Immediately her face broke into smile as a laugh escaped out over her lips. "To commemorate what exactly?" Reese couldn't help but grin while looking the pathetic little target over, wondering why in the world paper had been the choice to create targets out of in the first place.

Horatio chuckled while quickly rolling the sheet of holey paper up. "I believe that would depend on your own reasoning." He replied while holding the rolled up target out to her in a slightly tilt. "You do strike me as the type of person who held on to her first target practice sheet though."

"Am I that easy to read?" Reese's nose wrinkled slightly as she couldn't help but wonder if this was true, but nevertheless took the rolled up target from Horatio.

Shaking his head, Horatio scooped up the Beretta M9 service pistol that Reese had used and motioned for her to follow him. "Not at all." He cast a small smile upon her as they walked. "In fact, you seem a bit hard to read."

Reese exhaled quietly as a chagrined smile popped up on her face. "My shift supervisor from San Diego told me that quite a bit. He said it made me a _shark_ during questioning." There was a sense of both approval and acknowledgment that whirled about what sounded like slight resentment.

Briefly, Horatio lifted a brow at this. "That's a rather odd comparison." He mused while noting also in his own personal opinion how someone could come around to that. Reese had a presence upon her expression that was just hard to read, and even Horatio Caine was a bit stumped by it the first time he had actually met the out of town CSI.

Shrugging in response, Reese narrowed her eyes slightly while flicking her rolled up trophy poster just a bit as something struck her train of thought at the moment. "I was thinking about those bullets we couldn't find at the crime scene the other day." Her sudden change in conversation caught the lieutenant off-guard for a brief second or two before he nodded for her to continue. "When Janet was shot, the entry wounds were on her back, meaning she was running away towards the little open room that connects the kitchen to the garage. Now inside of that small space is a washer and dryer, which confuses the heck out of me since that house is just huge." She shook her head slightly at the rather random thought considering the washer and dryer's location in the home of the victims. "Anyways; the shots on Janet were a through and through just like the landscaper --- Greg Sanchez --- and that has me thinking that when the bullets exited Janet, they may have ricocheted off the appliances if they did in fact enter that area."

"Okay. While you're out in _the Grove_ with Speed, I want you to find the spent bullets." Horatio nodded as he spoke. "Let's make sure there's a match to the one that killed Mr. Smithson and those that killed Greg Sanchez."

Reese nodded as she mentally noted the extra little chore she had brought up for herself and Tim Speedle. "You think there might have been two different shooters?"

"There's always the possibility." He replied while a grin flickered over towards her. For a moment a calm silence settled between the two as they continued their walk. "So did you?" Horatio asked, in reference to his earlier statement concerning her keeping the target from her first firearms test, as he wanted to see whether or not he had reasoned correctly in the first place.

For a brief moment, Reese literally would have scratched her head in an attempt to recall what Horatio was talking about outside of the discussed homicide case she was working; but recognition to his question offered up a sheepish smile that slipped across her mouth even as she remained determined to keep her gaze forward. "Yeah, I did." What sounded like a choked down laugh escaped just on the rim of her words. She had even packed that folded up paper target during the packing of her things a few weeks ago in preparation for the move. In fact, it was stuffed away at the bottom of a keepsake box sitting up on the top shelf of her small bedroom closet.

Horatio nodded with a rather pleased look on his expression as they rounded the corner in a stretch of open hall that the twelve different lanes of the range striped down from. "I'll make a call today and get your service pistol issued. Even though I have you working mainly in the lab for the time being, eventually I want to turn you out on the field." Horatio mentioned aloud while pausing at the range master's counter. "I'm sending an officer out with you and Speed, but I want you to be careful not to go off anywhere on your own if you can help it." There was a stern but gentle tone to Horatio's words that had Reese feeling as if she had a father laying down the rules for her going out on her own.

Nodding her head to confirm her understanding to his issued _rules_, Reese found nothing to balk at since it was standard protocol for a CSI not to go off on their own if they could help it, even if they were armed. "No problem."


	8. Chapter 7

**Little Girl Lost**

**Chapter Seven**

* * *

_"Each of us bears his own hell."_ - **Virgil,_The Aeneid_**

* * *

Finding a spent bullet isn't all that easy. Retrieving the spent bullet is normally a much more simple job when the bullet is found. Pulling a bullet out of a ceiling that it has been embedded within after ricocheting off a metal surface, was more than likely one of the most difficult things CSI Reese Parker had ever done in collecting evidence. Actually, it was one of the most annoying things that Reese had done that day, and probably in the entirety of her career as a criminalist. The collection tweezers her kit was normally stocked with were of little help in retrieving the bullet out of the painted drywall situated two feet above her head. The additional height advantage that Reese had been given was thanks in part to a small collapsible step-ladder she had found tucked off behind the dryer. 

The tweezers had all but been discarded in favor of needle nose pliers that were also to be found on a normal basis in her field kit. The thin pointed, but blunt, ends had been forced into the small hole after photos of the location had been taken. Drywall dust floated down into her upturned face causing those deep blue eyes of hers to squint thinly in oder to see what she was doing. With a few gentle shifts of her wrist, Reese retrieved the spent bullet from the ceiling, thankful to finally be done with the stupid task (although it was incredibly important to the investigation to retrieve the bullet in the first place).

Swiping a hand over her face, Reese attempted to wipe away the fine powder of drywall dust while wondering if this would end up irritating her skin now. _Drywall... bane of my existence. _A rather sour look appeared upon her face as she stepped down off the step-ladder and further dusted her quarter sleeved dark purple shirt off as the chalky white powder had also landed upon the lightweight cotton fabric. "Well, at least I found both bullets." She murmured to herself while holding the bullet about four inches or so from her face as she studied the blood trace that had been left behind on the bullet.

The other bullet Reese had retrieved from the wall behind the washer, had traces of blood as well that belonged to Janet Smithson. Staring at the bullet didn't even seem to phase the redheaded CSI. She had collected far too many bullets and swabbed enough DNA from the spent projectiles to no longer feel a sickening punch in her gut every time she was faced with them. Death, although a natural occurring thing in life, was something that happened on a daily basis whether natural or forced.

Exhaling a small sigh, careful to avoid blowing her own DNA all over the evidence, Reese stepped out of the small sub-room that connected the kitchen of the residence to a back door that exited out on to the far end of the backyard patio. Her field kit was set out on the island counter top, the lids unlocked and open with the assortment of various tools used in the collection of evidence staring up at her. A small evidence envelope was plucked out of her kit and flipped open with the flick of the wrist.

There had been a case similar to this one here in Miami that Reese had worked in San Diego a fews months ago; husband had been caught up in the wrong sort of situation with a drug-cartel and in the end was executed after he refused to further aid in the smuggling of drugs and weapons through his company business. As soon as he was dead, the rest of his family was executed without a single shred of mercy. A mother and her two children (the oldest being thirteen and the youngest at ten) were found upstairs in the main bedroom. They had died together; a mother holding her precious babies to her even in death.

Sealing the evidence envelope, Reese's mouth twisted at the corner as she dropped it back into her field kit. _I guess in a way, I should grateful these people didn't have any children. _Not exactly and overall comforting thought in the least, and Reese knew it as she packed up her kit and headed out the back sliding glass doors.

Tim had taken up the effort of recovering the bullets used on the landscaper, which ended up being a much more difficult task than originally thought. Estimated trajectory had helped to an extent, but actually finding the bullets that were lost amongst shrubbery and dead foliage had proven to tug at Tim's patience level in an undignified manner. By the time Reese had collected the evidence from inside the house and come out into the backyard, Tim was off on the other side of the far property line rummaging through discomforting bushes with a maglite in hand.

Normally she would have offered out some sort of small joke, but considering the fact that she was on receiving end of a rather unpleasant look at the moment, Reese swallowed whatever had wanted out at the moment. "Ballistics evidence from the house has been recovered." Reese tilted her head a bit as she watched Tim resume his rummaging about the base of the bush. "Do you...?" She trailed off in mid-sentence as the other CSI finally stood up to his feet with something rather small pinched in between his thumb and index finger. "Never mind." Reese murmured more to herself than anything while scratching the back of her neck.

The last piece of ballistics evidence was bagged and tagged quickly, seeing as how Tim wanted nothing more than to be done with the backyard of the Smithson residence and leave the premises. There was still the matter of the missing kitchen knife that needed to be collected if at all possible, and thusly this little chore had the two CSIs and the accompanying patrol officer making their way down the winding street decorated with the massive sprawling homes of the wealthy. It hadn't taken more than a few short clips of suggested conversation between Tim and Reese before they settled on the same thought – flight and toss.

A Butterfly Orchid plant was momentarily illuminated by the small maglite in Reese's hand as she checked for the slightest glint of anything metal hidden within. The slow precession down the street wasn't anything short of slow annoyance as each flowerbed set along the curb was searched over and picked through. Finding a missing knife was going to be the equivalent of searching for the proverbial "needle in a haystack". Reese exhaled a quiet sigh as she stepped carefully around a Honey Suckle plant and lazily swatted a passing bug that buzzed by.

On the other side of the street, Tim shot a ruffled look down to where an intersection was coming up. They had spent nearly half the day out in _the Grove _now, and so far they had managed to both become equally annoyed to how long it had taken to recover the spent bullets. Glancing over to the redhead, who hastily slapped at fly that seemed bent on circling her head, Tim pursed his lips for a moment as the unsettling thought of never finding another piece of evidence. "You know, we may have to end up calling it a day here, even if we don't find this knife." He spoke aloud while exhaling a penned breath through his words.

"I figured that about an hour ago." Reese returned while poking at another plant with the toe of her dark Pumas. Stealing a short sideways look at her coworker, Reese held a small frown to her expression. "But that stupid knife could help this case out a good deal."

Tim frowned as he picked up on a rather newly discovered personality trait of the woman he had only known for about two days now. _Great; I get stuck with the new recruit who just so happens to also be stubborn. Well, at least possibly stubborn. _Tim mused almost a in a sarcastic and bitter manner as he rolled his eyes and diverted his attention elsewhere.

She had caught just the bare glimpse of the look that had come over Tim's expression, and in response Reese merely shook her head while continuing off down the street with the patrol officer following not too far behind. Something about his reaction to her own comment brought about a few quickly passing thoughts before she shoved them off into the back of her mind, shrugging it off as it just being an introduction to her personality and work ethic that Tim would eventually get used to. _I know I come off as overly stubborn and hardheaded, but that's just how I am. This world is already bad, and it's only going to get worse, but it takes a stubborn person in the first place to work in this kind of career... _Reese sighed quietly to herself.

Once the small group hit the intersection, it was starting to become painfully obvious that Tim's observation nearly twenty minutes ago was all but coming true. This, caused Reese to clench her teeth; jaw muscles tightening beneath her skin as she tried not to frown in expression of her disappointment. Tim rubbed the back of his neck roughly while looking left to right, up and down the street crossing over the theirs. He squinted slightly while allowing a frown to clearly slip across his face.

"We haven't found this missing knife, and I doubt there's any chance we will now." Tim muttered while shooting a quick glance over at the redhead who held a bit a pensive look on her face as she seemed to be still scanning the large radius of asphalt and manicured lawns. He exhaled a quiet, but ragged sigh. Something about that look on Reese's face wasn't exactly sitting well. By all means Tim Speedle cared about his work, and did everything he could to the best of his own abilities in order to sole a crime and put the criminal away. But he also knew when there's was just no more room to move around.

The patrol officer glanced between the two CSIs and held a bit of a puzzled look on his face as he was slight unsure if they were calling it a day or were going to continue on, as they seemed divided in train of thought.

Reese was just about to nod in agreement to Tim's point, until her blue eyes fell upon a maintenance shack just off to her left. The familiar blue painted metal dumpster peeked out just from the backside corner, and immediately caught her attention. Glancing over her shoulder at Tim, Reese lifted a brow before nodding over towards the direction of the maintenance shack and dumpster. "Well, before we officially call it a day, let's check that maintenance shack." She could already see the annoyance prickling within her coworker, and she pointed at herself. "I'll do the dumpster diving myself."

Tim appeared as though he was about to say something, but instead shook his head in some sort of accepted defeat before gesturing with a wave of his hand for Reese to lead the way.

A new pair of latex gloves were pulled over her hands as the dumpster lids were lifted backwards on their hinges at the hands of Tim and the patrol officer; all three cringed as the horrid stench of collected garbage assaulted their sense of smell almost immediately. Biting back the urge to gag, Reese hid her nose within the lifted crook of her elbow to inhale a somewhat clean breath through the filter of her shirt sleeve and then steeled herself as she dropped her arm. With an easy step up on to the protruding ridge of the dumpster, Reese lifted herself over the rusted lip and carefully stepped down upon what looked like a decent pile of cardboard boxes.

If it was possible, the smell was ten times worse while standing in the middle of it all. Taking shallow breathes, Reese began riffling through the garbage; shoving aside newspaper, more cardboard, black trash bags bulging with the discards of various households, and go knew only what else as she took care in picking about for their missing knife. The heat of the sun radiating from high above had already caused Reese to sweat profusely, and thusly her shirt was now clinging to her back and abdomen as if it were a second skin, making things a little more irritating than above the normal level in which dumpster diving usually drove someone to.

"Anything?" Tim coughed while swatting at several flies; he stood just two feet from the dumpster with the patrol officer, not wanting to be any closer to the smell than he necessarily had to. For the better part of fifteen minutes, Reese had all but disappeared inside of the dumpster, and the only assurance to her still alive inside of the putrid coffin was the glimpses of cardboard jutting up above the lip as it was shoved aside. _She had better not pass out in there. _He frowned at the thought of having to climb in to the dumpster in order to retrieve the unconscious redhead flashed briefly across his mind.

Not more than thirty-seconds after Tim voiced his question, Reese's left hand appeared above the lip of the dumpster. Her fingers were gingerly holding the dark stained wooden handle grip of a Chef's Knife that held a very visible stain of dried blood along the sharp edge of the blade. There was a forced smile on Reese's face as she stood up and glanced from the knife in her hand and then to the CSI who was already crouched beside his field kit and retrieving a long manila envelope to bag and tag the knife. "Yeah, I think I got something." Her tone of voice sounded incredibly sarcastic as the patrol officer approached her, latex gloves on his hands so he could take the knife from her for a moment. Handing the evidence off to the officer, Reese hurriedly clambered out of the dumpster and used the back of her forearm to wipe away th sweat that had beaded over her brow.

"Are you okay detective?" The patrol officer gave the woman beside him a somewhat of a worried look as he watched her blink rapidly as if to clear her eyes of something that had intruded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Waterproof mascara never comes off with soap and water, but the minute you start sweating or jump into a pool, it's more than ready to blind you." Reese chuckled half-heartedly while blinking a few more times to clear her stinging vision.

Nodding to this, the patrol officer handed the knife over to Tim as he flicked open the evidence envelope. "You know what," He grinned over at Reese, "My wife says the exact same thing."


End file.
